European Space Agency Science Programme

The Cosmic Vision 2015-2025 is ESA's roadmap for scientific space based missions.

The initial call of ideas and concepts was launched in 2004 with a subsequent workshop held in Paris to define more fully the themes of the Vision under the broader headings of Astronomy and AStrophysics, Solar System Exploration and Fundamental Physics.

By early 2006 the formulation for a 10-year plan based around 4 key questions emerged:

   * What are the conditions for planet formation and the emergence of life?
   * How does the Solar System work?
   * What are the fundamental physical laws of the Universe?
   * How did the Universe originate and what is it made of?

In March 2007 a call for mission ideas was formally relased